The Motor Industry Association said the final figure of just over 127,000 was up by 12 percent on the previous year.

The previous high for total annual car sales was 30 years ago, when 123,000 new cars were registered in 1984.

The association's chief executive David Crawford said construction in Auckland and Christchurch had driven demand.

"The markets in Auckland is driven by the housing and infrastructure projects up there and the Christchurch rebuild it drove the light commercial sector and the light commercial sector in particular has done very well over the last few years."

Mr Crawford said the outlook was for another strong year this year, though he did not expect as much growth as in 2014.